Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

howardeisman I always get an unpleasant jolt when I see a movie from the late phase of Errol Flynn's career. He had not gotten fat, but his face had puffed up and seemed vertically scrunched. Worst of all, his youthful roguish smile and impish expressions had become a permanent stone face. His 1930s style mustache seemed an unusual affectation in an era of clean shaven men. His lips barely moved as he let his lines leak out. He looked sad and angry, no matter what emotions the script called for. He certainly had a lot of illnesses, so maybe his perpetually tightly shut mouth was hiding some physical problem.His female lead, Cornel Borchers, had many closeups as she spoke to Flynn. Her animation and sparkling smile contrasted with Flynn's stone face. Thus, the scenes did not play well. They also seemed to have fallen into devoted, passionate love in a nanosecond, for reasons which are unexplained.The movie is a mild romantic/adventure story. There is enough in it to keep you watching, but just enough. There is an amnesia thread in the story which belongs in the Three Stooges Handbook of psychiatric practice. Nat Cole sings well, of course.

cuteasfunk Istanbul and the associated reviews are really interesting. Yes it is a bit cliché'd and yes some of the characters are one dimensional. Errol Flynn's acting is unique and there are clearly attempts to refer to film noir (even though this a colour film) and there is an attempt by the film studio to lay this film over the moral dilemma of Casablanca and throw in Nat King Cole and "when I fall in love" as a replacement for Dooley Wilson and Time Goes by. But let us not forget films cost a significant amount of money to make and studios are stupid and they feel that they have to piggy back the film's selling point with another film's Unique selling point...see Altman's The Player....if you need proof. But actually the pull of this film's USP, namely the love interest's amnesia and Errol Flynn's affection for her are quite striking. The diamond smuggling sub plot works to a degree albeit the villains, as one reviewer says, are rather thinly drawn. What I found interesting as well was 1950's view of women. There was no depth to the relationship between the lead characters just a suggestion of something deep and intense going on. However floating on a love boat in the Bosphorus was all that explained this "love". Also the potential life after the successful acquisition of the diamonds was hinted without any explanation...and the lead female's new life was ugly to the 21st century mind...a suggestion that she would look after Mr Fielding, (presumably cooking, looking nice and proving oral sex) and in return he would feed and clothe her and take her to places like Istanbul, was contrasted with Marge and her husband, where the husband dished out a black eye because Marge might have been tempted by a Frenchman who would have gone with her to see Hamlet in Turkish was almost risible. But I stuck with this film to the end and enjoyed the mild threat and laughed at the cloak and dagger stuff........no it's not great but it is worth watching.

louis-king Fairly good movie with some similarities to Casablanca including a song comparable to 'As Time Goes By' sung by the leading man's black sidekick.Nat Cole was one of the greatest song stylists ever, and the way he caresses 'When I Fall In Love' is something to behold. As an actor he was just fair, but when he sings at the piano even Errol Flynn pays him an envious compliment.Cornell Borchers is pretty but doesn't jump off the screen like Ingrid Bergman. Flynn is good but shows the beginnings of his alcohol induced physical slide that led to his premature death in 1959.

skyboy1999 By no means a masterpiece, and far from Errol Flynn's best, Istanbul still has much going for it. The locations and beautiful technicolour cinematography, bring us back to a time long since past. Errol Flynn does show moments of his past glory, and is OK as Jim Brennan, a pilot who's past comes back to haunt him. The picture is actually a remake of 1947's "Singapore", and the story seems awfully contrived and cliche' by today's standards. Also many of the supporting cast seem to be simply "going through the motions" in this picture. Many people have also compared it to one of the all time greats, CASABLANCA. While watching the film, I could see many of the similarities, but hey, Casablanca has inspired countless imitators, so take that for what it's worth. In closing, if you are a fan of Flynn, or old fashioned love stories, you might want to give this film a look. Otherwise, I'd recommend Casablanca, or The Maltese Falcon, as a good introduction to some of Hollywood's classics....